[ubuntu-uk] WinXP to Ubuntu upgrade

[Rob Beard]

On 23/06/10 14:56, Andrew Bryant wrote:
> A friend has an XP system that no longer boots, and is quite excited at
> the thought of installing Ubuntu.
>
> Ubuntu running from CD-ROM can mount the XP hard drive, and so far as we
> can tell most of the filesystem is OK.
>
> In order to transfer Outlock Express data (both the emails and the
> address list) do we need to get the windows system repaired first, or
> can we copy the relevant folders across and work some magic in Ubuntu?
>
> (The info I've found online about changing from OE to
> Thunderbird/Evolution assumes the XP system is still working.)
>
> Andrew.
>

When you install Ubuntu it should hopefully pickup the Windows 
installation and give you the option to import settings and e-mails from 
your old Windows XP profile.  In the past I've done it with Vista and it 
imported Firefox, IE and Thunderbird items, I would have thought it 
would also import Outlook Express data too.

If in doubt, make a backup of the Documents and Settings folder from the 
XP partition, if it goes wrong you should be able to restore it from the 
backup.

Then I guess give it a try installing.  You may need to run a fix on the 
drive first if the XP partiton is labelled as not being clean, ntfsfix 
should be able to do this.

When you install, resize the XP partition (don't delete it!) and install 
Ubuntu and hopefully it should resize the XP partition, install Ubuntu 
and then import any documents and settings from Windows.

Hope this helps.

Rob